bora bora

as part of our online holiday boutique we are featuring eight amazing jewelry artists who we love here at free people, and i thought you might like to know their stories. we’ll start with bora…

we have worked with bora for years, and we love his unique jewelry and his ability to think outside of the box. born in turkey, bora’s immersion in mediterranean culture is one of the many things that inspires the jewelry he makes today. his dream was to be a musician, but his creativity and imagination led him towards jewelry design. with the help of his engineering background, he is able to carefully craft designs with close attention to detail and dimensions. his favorite material to “play” with is copper because he appreciates the historic quality of the metal. the best thing about his pieces is that they’re an abstract and interesting addition to any look.
check out our selection of jewelery by bora here.

patches from india

i love the one-of-a-kind patched bf jeans we just got in, but i love ‘em even more now that i know the story behind them. read on for merrie’s story about the inspiration behind these unique, one-of-a-kind jeans.

“we recently met a young woman from kutch, a desert area in the state of gujarat in india. she had a huge collection of tribal embroideries, which we bought to piece with delicate embroidered net from a market in Delhi and patch onto vintage denim.
we have always loved making clothes out of vintage pieces, cutting them up and adding bits of trims from another era, some tribal embroidery or some old denim. we had already created a small workshop in india where we make most of our store fixtures…embroidered hangers, cane stools, dressing room curtains, beaded chandeliers…etc. adding a few sewing machines to that set-up seemed the next step.
now we are able to find assorted fabrics in the markets, collect trims we love, and put them in the newest silhouettes for the stores within a month or so of the initial inspiration. the assorted fabrics keep that one-of-a-kind feel, while making several of the same silhouette allows us to keep the prices reasonable.
we’ll send a photo of our happy workshop soon. on any given day, there might be: men sitting under the mango trees, hand weaving cane stools for the showroom in new york…tailors sewing prototypes for our next fp one season…wood carvers making doors for our newest fp store…pinwheel makers sitting in the grass making hundreds of paper pinwheels for our next display…anshu the gardener’s son studying his abc’s…it is quite a group effort!”
thanks merrie! can’t wait to see some photos!

design for we the free!

if you’re a clothing/accessories designer with a love of all things raw and genuine and rad…and if you’re in l.a. this thursday, you should come out to our we the free store!! we’re looking for folks who would be interested in sharing their wares, and possibly adding them into our existing product assortment.
what a cool opportunity…hope to see you!

1520 cahuenga blvd. c/o space 1520